PARIS Dec. 26, Reuter: France appealed to the Soviet Union today to stop trying to subdue Afghanistan by force and seek a negotiated solution to the conflict between the Soviet backed Kabul Government and rebels.
In a statement the seventh anniversary of Moscow’s armed intervention, the Foreign Ministry hailed the Afghans’ “courageous struggle” against the Soviet army and promised to step up material and humanitarian aid to refugees.
“France appeals to the Soviet Union to renounce the illusory temptation of force and to accept finally to take the path of a negotiated settlement”, it said.
The statement said that steppe dap operations by Soviet armed forces and “considerably aggravated the suffering of the Afghan people, but have not shaken the resistance’s willingness to fight’.
It said the only solution lay in United Nations resolutions calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops, self-determination for the Afghan people, the return of refugees and the restoration of the country’s nonaligned status.
Officials could not immediately give details of existing levels of aid to Afghan refugees or how these would be increased. French doctors, however, are prominent in giving medical aid to refugees in Pakistan.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 2, 1987
